A Tale of Two Women – Ovarian cancer

A Tale of Two Women – Ovarian cancer

A Tale of Two Women – Ovarian cancer
Posted on June 28, 2009

In February of 2008 we got some bad news. Our friend’s daughter had cancer. This was very devastating to us because we had two daughters so we knew how much our friends were hurting. She was only 19 years old and the threat of cancer hanging over her was certainly frightening. She was a heady smart intelligent young woman who loved to spend time reading and working on her computer. She did not spend a lot of time outside and she had the loveliest white complexion that a lot of people would say was most pleasing.

We told our friends about the vitamin d thing and how it could help prevent and maybe even help the healing process. Vitamin D3, it seems works, along several pathways to help heal disease. Number one it helps at a genetic level to tell immature tumor cells that they are just that and to stop growing or cellular apoptosis. The D3 also helps the blood supply network that is feeding the tumor to stop growing from a genetic level because this is not the normal design of the body or angiogenesis. Also it raises the level of innate immunity so the body develops appropriate defensins such as cathelicidin antimicrobial peptides, phagocytes, and neutrofil granulocites that help destroy and adsorb ‘bad cells’ and ‘foreign bodies’ in the blood system. There is also an aid to T-cell regulation in this complex system of immunity. And if you are taking chemo one of the problems is thrombosis and vitamin D3 helps to control this issue as well.

It would seem that if any of this were true that you would want to get your serum level of 25(OH)D up to that of a sunny country or about 54 ng/ml to 90 ng/ml to allow the body to heal itself. However our friends, one of them a medical professional, thought that if there was anything to this understanding of vitamin D that the cancer ‘experts’ or oncologist would have long ago begin this practice of maintaining a ‘sunny country’ level of vitamin D3 in cancer patients. This seemed like a reasonable decision at the time. I just can’t imagine the advice and what type that you would get if a family member had cancer.

The treatment protocols for our friend seemed to progress well through the year and they thought that with the combination of radiation and chemo that they had the cancer under control. On the Friday before thanksgiving they decided to take their daughter back to the hospital for evaluation because she was having a lot of problems with headaches. It turns out hat she had more tumors that had come back so they decided to begin treatment again on the following Monday. Their daughter died on Saturday before they had a chance to begin treatment. We are grieving.

In February of 2008 we got some more bad news. My brother called to say that he had a girl friend that was in a serious way with cancer. It turns out that she had ovarian cancer that was discovered two years prior. She had surgery and had the tumors removed as well as her uterus. She was told at the time that the cancer had metastasized to so many places in her body that she would have only two years to live. She had a great job in New York City but decided that life should be lived to its fullest and she would come back home and take a walk on the wild side. Who could blame her for this action?

My brother said that she had internal bleeding as she was passing blood and that all of her lymph nodes were swollen all over her body and that she had other lumps. It seems that her medical insurance had expired and that she ‘had enough’ of the medical system. With not any energy left she decided to just go to bed to die. My brother wanted to help but did not know what to do. He called to ask if there was anything to this vitamin D. I told him that I did not think that it would help anyone who was this far along with developed cancer and that the best thing he could do was to call the woman’s oncologist expert that we have in our family to see if he had any suggestions and to get this woman to a doctor.

My brother decided that he would just tell her about the vitamin D and see what she wanted to do. She agreed that if it could even give her any relief that she was willing to try it. She decided to take 50,000 IU of D3 per day or 1.25 milligrams for three months. She took other supplements as well like calcium, vitamin A from fish liver oil, chelated magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, and a vitamin B complex. I told my brother that it sounded like the alphabet of nutrition. She had also read that it would help balance the body’s system to drink bicarbonate of soda every day so she did that.
In late October I got a call from the woman. She wanted to call to say thank you for helping them find out about the information on vitamin D3. She said that all of her symptoms were gone and that she had the most energy that she had in twenty five years. She was out looking for work. I asked her about the vitamin D3 and how she had taken it and she said that she took a 50,000 IU per day until the bottle was gone or 100 days (at this level of use you could expect toxicity to begin at about six months or more) and then took a 50,000 IU once per week. After she realized that she was not going to die she went to a doctor that advised her to keep taking the vitamin D3 at one 50,000IU per week as it would certainly do no harm.

I just did not know what to think at this point. Had my brother exaggerated the symptoms of her cancer? Was there some kind of spontaneous remission of the cancer? She had reunited with her mother and they had the church praying for her so maybe it was a miracle of God and whatever the path it certainly is a miracle of God. Anyway I could not wrap my mind around this. Maybe the researchers are correct but just did not know how correct they are. I understand that there are ongoing trials for the prevention of cancer with vitamin D3 but has anyone thought about trials for the treatment of cancer. Are we so tied into a system that only responds to profit that we can not just help heal people and consider their health a profit?

I checked just a couple of weeks ago and my brother said, ‘yeah she is doing just fine’. I still do not know what to think!?

If you think you have any symptoms of cancer go to a doctor! You may also want to think about using D3 to get your serum level to that of sunny country as it will not do any harm and may help you significantly. Also, please consider you diet to determine if you are getting the correct foods for essential nutrition.

The Vitamin D Council’s comment on Cancer.
” The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood.” – John 1:5 NIV

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